Federico Macheda reveals David Moyes has not shown the same faith in him that Sir Alex Ferguson did as he prepares to leave Manchester United

Manchester United striker Federico Macheda is preparing for life away from Old Trafford as he looks set to leave the club at the end of the season when his contract runs out, and he has not held back in his criticism of manager David Moyes for not showing the same faith in him that Sir Alex Ferguson once did.

Macheda made one of the most dramatic and memorable debuts in Premier League history back on April 5 2009. With United trailing Aston Villa 2-1 at home off the back of two consecutive defeats, Ferguson elected to throw a fresh-faced, 17-year-old Italian in at the deep end for his first appearance in the Premier League.

A certain Cristiano Ronaldo drags United level with 10 minutes to go, but the best is yet to come. Deep into injury time, Macheda curls a right-footed effort to write himself into the history books at the Theatre of Dreams, and the teenager prepares himself for the spectacular career he is about to endure with the biggest club in the country. Right? Wrong.

Loan spells with Doncaster, Stuttgart and now Birmingham City has seen Macheda struggle to take advantage of any opportunities afforded to him at United, and having shown such promise in his early days with the club, he admits he’ll be looking for pastures new in a few months’ time.

“I don’t think I will stay at United but whatever happens, nobody can take away the memories of my time there,” Macheda told the Telegraph.

“Sir Alex was amazing for me, he believed in me so much. After I scored two goals against Charlton last month he sent me a text message straight after the game. That was incredible because I hadn’t spoken to him for a long time so to get that text was a relief. He said, ’Well done and keep going’.”

Macheda has scored six goals in the Championship this term with Birmingham, with three of those coming last month courtesy of the 2-0 win over the Addicks plus the 3-3 draw with Derby. Now 22, he’ll hope to add more to his tally when he faces Queens Park Rangers this weekend – another club he spent time with in recent years.

Having not featured for the Red Devils since a Champions League tie with CFR Cluj in December 2012, Macheda looks to have played his last game for the club as there is no recall clause in his loan deal, and he admits to having very little contact with Moyes – though he does accept it’s due to his need to work loosely with his first team squad.

“I haven’t had that much to do with him because he has been working with the first team,” Macheda adds. “I’ve been left out from the team and of course that was disappointing but you can understand a new manager wanting to work with new players.

“He made his choice and I went my way, everyone was happy. I spoke with him before I came here. I said I wanted to go to Birmingham and he agreed, so that was that.

“I didn’t go on pre-season this summer and I don’t know why. But I was prepared because I knew the new manager would want to bring in new players.”